Abstract:
Executive Summary from the report: Geoscience Australia's involvement in Antarctica has primarily been focused on the maintenance and enhancement of geodetic infrastructure within the Australian Antarctic Territory (AAT). Such infrastructure provides a fundamental reference frame for the region and supports earth monitoring science applications on both a regional and continental scale. These ... foundations have furthered the development of geodesy throughout the continent and provided information on the contemporary motion of the Antarctic plate for comparison with long-term geological records. Primary Antarctic geodetic control also contributes to a greater understanding of global earth movement though contribution to the International Terrestrial Reference Frame solutions.

This report focuses on the field work undertaken during the 2010/11 Antarctic summer by Geoscience Australia surveyors at the Davis, Mawson and Macquarie Island research stations, as well as several remote sites in Eastern Antarctica. At each of the research stations, upgrades and local monitoring surveys were performed at the continuously operating reference stations (CORS), which form part of the Australian Regional GNSS Network and also contribute to the International GNSS Service. Remote GPS sites in the Grove Mountains, Bunger Hills, Wilson Bluff and Mt Cresswell were also visited for equipment upgrades and data retrieval. Additional surveys were undertaken directed at enhancing the spatial infrastructure around both the Larsemann and Vestfold Hills. Support was also provided to a number of different Australian Antarctic Division projects.

Surveys of new buildings and other infrastructure at Davis and Mawson were carried out for the Australian Antarctic Division and are described in part 7 of the survey report.

The Related URLs include links to where the following can be downloaded: 1 The survey report; 2 Data from the surveys at Davis and Mawson; 3 GIS data representing features such as buildings at Davis and Mawson. Data resulting from the 2010/11 surveys has Dataset_id = 293 in the attribute table.